Nancy Pelosi Had to Silence Men Talking Over Her at White House Dinner

“And she was not interrupted again.”

Yet another woman in Congress has made it clear she won't be silenced. Nancy Pelosi, the House of Representatives minority leader who made history as the first female Speaker of the House in 2007, was at a White House dinner to discuss the future of DACA when she got fed up with the men speaking over her, The Washington Postreported.

Pelosi — who was the only woman at the dinner — tried to respond to a question posed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, but at least some of the 10 men at the table were making it difficult. So, she interjected: "Do the women get to talk around here?" And, as the Post reported, according to its sources, "There was, at last, silence, and she was not interrupted again."

In an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, said that he was there and doesn't "recall that happening at all." But Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, chimed in on Twitter to confirm that, yes, it did indeed happen. He shared Pelosi's "full" quote, which is slightly different than what was originally reported but in the same vein: "Does anybody listen to women when they speak around here?" As Hammill deftly pointed out, "Evidently, NO is the answer."

The dinner was the latest instance of men in Congress trying to silence their female counterparts — and the women not having it. Senator Kamala Harris has been repeatedly interrupted by male colleagues, but in each instance she has refused to be shut down and continued doing her job (which led to a Trump campaign adviser calling her "hysterical" on CNN.) Senator Elizabeth Warren's tenacity in reading a letter from Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King, to protest Attorney General Jeff Sessions's nomination led to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell inadvertently coining a new rallying cry for the resistance: "Nevertheless, she persisted." Months later, Congresswoman Maxine Waters set the Internet ablaze with three words — "Reclaiming my time" — that she repeated throughout her questioning of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. And, of course, Hillary Clinton has been consistently strong and vocal in the face of near-constant sexism.

Of course, sexism in the workplace isn't limited to Congress (or to speaking in Congress — see the latest enforcements of Capitol Hill's dress code). As one Twitter user wrote, "There is not a woman among us who has not experienced some variation of this. @NancyPelosi is all of us. #ShePersisted" But when those in the public eye speak up, hopefully it sends a message to everyone that it's time to stop silencing women.